Friday was a disappointing day to say the least, with neither selection getting the job done for us.
I was confident that Touleen would confirm the form with Zanthos, and when I saw Zanthos drift out to 15/2, I thought the writing was on the wall. Zanthos was the eventual winner of the race and was given a good ride by jockey Oisin Murphy. Regardless of the result, I still believe Touleen is the better animal, and I can't for the life of me understand the ride Buick gave my selection on the day. He rode Touleen cold at the rear, giving the winner multiple lengths and an easy time upfront. Touleen did make up ground, but used up to much petrol to close the gap and didn't close the gap in the run-in. Touleen wasn't the only ride Buick had a nightmare with on Friday and his hold up tactics cost him more than once.
My other selection was Isle Of Jura in the 3:35 contest. I took a gamble on the layoff with that horse, and as much as he ran well, he could only manage a second-place finish and was well beaten in the end. The winner was a 20/1 shot in Lions Pride, who romped home by 7L in the end, a baffling result given that one had shown very little to suggest he was capable of hammering that particular field in the manner he did. That's racing; we see silly results like that daily, and we move on.
Wise Approach 11/10 – Newmarket 3:00
My first selection is a tad short but similar to Thursday's winning selection, I feel the 11/10 could potentially be good value, as I feel this horse should be odds on to win this race.
I'm hoping William Buick has a better day on Saturday than he did on Friday as he is on board Wise Approach for this contest. After analyzing this field, I struggled to find anything that could potentially upset Wise Approach. He brings by far the best pieces of form to this contest. He easily beat Rock Of Thunder by 4L when they met and that one has since gone on to finish runner up in the Gimcrack.My selection was also a close third behind Venetian Sun and Gstaad when they met over in France and those two have since gone on to win at the recent Royal Ascot meeting.
On paper, this should be relatively straightforward for Wise Approach, with most of this field needing to find a lot to get the better of my selection.
Lost Boys 9/4 – Haydock 3.50
For my final selection on Saturday, I've gone hunting at the meeting at Haydock and the horse that drew my eye is Lost Boys for trainer David Menuisier and jockey Hector Crouch.
Unlike most in this field, my selection has some racing experience to his name, and this lightly raced two-year-old brings some nice pieces of form to the table, which should see him tough to beat, particularly if building on those efforts, which is very likely. Lost Boys has finished third in his two races to date, but both of those maidens look quite good in terms of quality now, especially since the form has been franked since.
My selection was just over 5L behind the eventual winner in Bow Echo on debut, which reads well now with that following up next time out to beat the Gosden-trained Publish, Lost Boys then ran another encouraging race in his most recent outing, finishing third once more behind two decent sorts in River Card and Maltese Cross. The form of that contest has recently been franked with Maltese Cross winning at Newmarket on Thursday when battling back to get the better of the Appleby-trained Del Maro.
GambleAware